Murder on a Moon Trek

Chapter 21: Council Chambers

Council Chambers was a sleek room that housed an oblong table and chairs. Each seat around the table had a small black stand in front of it. One by one, senior officers of Moon Unit 5 arrived. Each stopped by a computer library on the left side of the room and withdrew a tablet from its port, and then sat around the table and connected to an alternate power source. Screens glowed one at a time with an orange background and the Moon Unit insignia in the center in black and white. Two moons circled a planet in an off-center arc that mirrored our current trek to Ganymede.

I didn't know how long it took for the senior crew to arrive at Council Chambers, but the BOP indicated that when a Code White—or subordinate crew member threat—was identified, the second officers were to take over first officer posts so the problem could be addressed immediately. When the six attendees—five plus Vaan—had arrived, the door swished shut and a barrier slid down from ceiling to floor to isolate the panels that allowed them to open. We were here, and we were going to stay here, until the issue resolved.

Now that we were all gathered in the room, I wasn't sure what to expect. There'd been nothing in the BOP about a private audience—probably because the only people who would be requesting private audiences were those who had committed some frowned upon infraction.

I leaned closer to Neptune. "What happens now?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I thought you knew."

I shook my head.

"Once everyone is seated and signed in, you address the council and tell them what happened."

This time I raised an eyebrow. "The truth, Stryker. All anybody wants to hear from you is the truth."

Whether I wanted to acknowledge the circumstances that had led to me holding court in Council Chambers or not, I knew telling the truth was the only way. The first course at space academy security training had included over fifty ways to identify if someone was lying. The course culminated in a timed test and those who couldn't recognize all fifty-seven body language and verbal tells in under a minute were expelled from the academy. My class had started with ninety-six members. That single course had whittled us down to fewer than twenty.

I'd set a new record for how quickly anyone had recognized all of the signs: seventeen seconds. Vaan and I had celebrated with a bottle of Saturnian wine I'd swiped from my dad's secret stash.

I stood stoically while the officers carried their computer to their seats, connected them, and then held their palm against the orange screen to scan in their identities. When the last of the officers had completed the task, Captain Swift turned to me.

"Lt. Stryker, you requested this assembly, so let's get right to it. State your name and rank for the record."

I moved to the end of the table and looked at the officers seated around the room. "Lt. Sylvia Stryker, security section aboard Moon Unit 5."

Yeoman D'Nar cleared her throat loudly. A few heads turned her direction. "Unless I'm mistaken, the uniform ward is not part of security section," she said.

Neptune stood. "Lt. Stryker's educational background is in security. We have an active threat on board this ship. As the ship's senior security officer and private counsel to Captain Swift, I reassigned Lt. Stryker to my team."

"You can't do that!" D'Nar said. "Not without consulting with me. She is my responsibility. People expect her to be in the uniform ward where she belongs, not running around the ship attacking other officers."

I fought to control my temper. The ensuing tension broke when Vaan responded. "Lt. Stryker was in the top of her class at the space academy. She is more qualified to work security on this ship than the next ten candidates on the waitlist. Neptune is correct. There is a threat on board this ship, and the number one priority is for that threat to be contained. To do that, he needs the best staff he can get."